World Cup Skiing

Just missed the podium!!

We just returned home from our ski trip to the Dolomites.  Before leaving I said to my mom, "I'll stay on the blue and green runs with you". Well I surprised myself because I was literally skiing the whole time with dad and Simona on red runs, but the first day of skiing I made it clear to him I was NOT going on black runs.  Now this is where I surprised myself even more.  On our last day of skiing dad and I went on the 2011 world cup run known as Saslong which is a black run.  My favorite part about that run was the big billboard at the bottom of the hill which had the names of the top 3 skiers for this years race.  Well if you can believe it, a Canadian Erik Guay came in third place for the mens Super-G  race.  Once I saw the billboard I was especially proud to be Canadian.

This pic speaks for itself.....

Throughout the week we met families from all over the world including families from England, Holland, Germany, Russia, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, Sweden.  I could go on and on but my point is when we told people we were Canadian their eyes lit up.  Mom told us that when she told a lady in her ski class we were Canadian the lady said, " Oh it's my dream to go to Canada, you never hear anything bad about it".

Our Dutch friends

Wednesday was our second last day of skiing so we decided to leave mom in ski school and go to a particular part of the Dolomites where you get pulled by horses for about 2 kilometers on some flat land.  We met 2 families from Holland staying in our hotel who were also going to the horses so we all went together.  All I can say is that it was freezing like you can't even imagine, minus 12C.  Going up on the chair lift I was literally crying of how windy and cold it was.  The other bad thing about going to the horses was that there was a lot of pole pushing and a lot of long line ups........ or as the English say 'there were a lot of long queues'.  The horses were ok but it was definitely not my favorite part.

I loved the hotel we stayed at.  The dinner was so good every single night. We had steak, salmon, meat skewers, rabbit with polenta and mushrooms, cordon bleu, everything you could ever imagine.  It was so delicious, and the dessert was even better!!  Some nights the main course was served covered by a cloche which made it really fancy and Thursday night we ate by candle light.  I wish we could go back. 

Madeleine